General Electric

A radical plan to dispose of Britain's huge store of civil plutonium - the biggest in the world - by "burning" it in a new type of fast reactor is now officially one of three "credible options" being considered by the Government, The Independent understands.

However, further delays have hit attempts to make a final decision on what to do with the growing plutonium stockpile which has been a recurring headache for successive governments over the past three decades.

Britain is set to tackle a 60-year-old problem that has dogged successive governments: how to resolve the deadly legacy from the country's first generation of nuclear power plants.

The UK is home to the world's largest stockpile of plutonium, with more than 100 tonnes of the highly radioactive material.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, whose job it is to look after the plutonium, is preparing to give its recommendation on how the government should deal with the problem, with an announcement expected as early as next month.

Areva and EDF, the French nuclear groups, have both defended the cost of new nuclear projects despite the €2bn of extra cost overruns on their flagship next-generation reactor at Flamanville in Normandy.

The news that the reactor, the first built in France for 15 years, is expected to cost €8.5bn rather than the €3.3bn first forecast comes as questions are raised about whether nuclear power remains affordable.

ISTANBUL, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Turkey will make changes to a nuclear energy tender law nearly two months after it received just one bid in a tender to build the country's first nuclear power plant, an Energy Ministry source told Reuters on Tuesday.

A consortium comprised of Russian Atomstroyexport and Inter Rao along with Turkey's Park Teknik Group was the sole bidder in a tender to build and operate Turkey's first nuclear power plant in Mersin on the Mediterranean coast.

ANKARA, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday there was no plan to postpone a tender to build and operate Turkey's first nuclear power plant, scheduled for Wednesday.

Turkey has set a deadline of Sept. 24 for bids to build the plant at Akkuyu near Mersin on the Mediterranean coast with a capacity of 4,000 megawatts, plus or minus 25 percent.

VILNIUS, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Lithuania said on Monday it will choose reactors for a new nuclear power plant from four suppliers, including French Areva and U.S. General Electric, but excluding Russian companies.

Lithuania aims to build a new nuclear power plant by 2016-2020 in cooperation with neighbouring Latvia, Estonia and Poland, with a tender to supply reactors to be launched in 2010.

VILNIUS, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The company leading work on Lithuania's new $10 billion nuclear power station said on Thursday it would target capacity of 2,200 megawatts, lower than originally forecast.

A draft environmental impact study said the plant could be built to generate up to 3,200-3,400 MW, accommodating the demands of project partners Poland, Latvia and Estonia, all keen to lessen their dependence on Russian energy supplies.

ROME (Thomson Financial) - General Electric Co expressed an interest in participating in Turkey's nascent nuclear power programme following the Turkish parliament's recent adoption of a law that authorises the construction of the first nuclear power stations.

Ricardo Cordoba, president of GE Energy in western Europe and north Africa, told Agence France-Presse that Turkey needs new power stations, and that his company would be able to provide the country with all its requirements for its new nuclear power programme. Cordoba was speaking on the sidelines of the 20th World Energy Congress in Rome. GE Energy manufactures nuclear reactors as well as turbines.